By AJ Dugger III
Some 50 years after being denied their prom due to racism, the Carver High School class of 1963 got the chance to have their senior prom May 17, 2013 in the Boutwell Municipal Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama.
Carver High was one of 10 schools whose prom was canceled because of their students’ participation in the Civil Rights Movement’s “Children’s Crusade.” The prom was called “The Greater Birmingham Historical Prom for May 1963.”
That same year, the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing devastated the Birmingham community. The lives of four young African American girls were lost in the blaze. “Since the anniversary, some people got together and took it to the mayor’s office and decided to do something about the events of that year,” said Barbara Jones Bah, one of the Carver High seniors in 1963. “Working with Mayor William Bell Sr.. the city of Birmingham organized a prom for the seniors who never got to enjoy one in 1963.
Bah, a doctor of dental surgery and specialist in treating gum disease and dental implants, said the long overdue prom was a great success. “We had a triumphant evening. It was very well attended and we had a great time. There were 10 high schools that participated. The mayor’s office was very significant in financing the event.”
There were literally hundreds of Birmingham seniors at the prom wearing elegant dresses and suits. “The prom was taken away from us because of the actions that we took. When we chose to march, those rights were taken from us,” Brenda Phillips Hong, who was a student at Western-Olin High School, now Jackson-Olin, told the Birmingham News.
Hong added students were threatened with expulsion for leaving school to protest. Still, they walked out and later participated in the historic “Children’s Crusade.” ”I cannot explain it rationally because it was emotional,” she said. “I was a child (17), and I responded to what was going on around me.”
“The prom was taken away from us because of the actions that we took. When we chose to march, those rights were taken from us,” said Brenda Hong ”I was rebellious, but I was absolutely afraid of my mother. She told me if I went to jail I would stay there forever. When I walked out of school I was already in trouble.”
While Hong was not arrested, other students were not so fortunate. They faced arrest and abuse from authorities.
The May prom is part of several city activities commemorating the 50th anniversary of pivotal moments of the civil rights era, including the downtown marches.
This event went further as a celebration of victory over social injustice and an invitation to current youth to learn from former students the significance of the era, Hong added. The group also sponsored a high school essay competition and cash awards to the student winners.
“It’s not so much about the prom, it’s about a promise we made as children to make a difference to make a difference to bring about needed changes,” Hong said.
Bah and many of her classmates were fed up in 1963 with being denied their civil rights. African Americans could not sit at lunch counters and were restricted to upstairs balconies at movie theaters.
Civil Rights leaders were recruiting young people to participate in the “Children’s Crusade,” a march that lasted from May 2 through May 5, at the height of the Movement’s Birmingham campaign.
The 17-year-old Bah was eager to enlist and will never forget the demonstration. “We were marching to where the lunch counters were,” she explained. “Because of segregation, we could not sit at the lunch counters.”
The first day she demonstrated, Bah and the others were picked up by school buses. The next day they repeated their demonstration and were promptly arrested. According to Bah, there was minimal resistance. “We were determined to stay and follow through with it,” she explained. Because there was not a lot of room in the juvenile centers, Bah was sent to the state fair grounds were she spent five nights and six days awaiting her release.
“On the sixth day I was released. That was quite an experience,” she remembered. “Those of us who were trying to graduate missed our spring concert and all of those things because we were expelled from school. They decided to cancel all the Negro high school proms.”
However, that wasn’t the end of the line for Bah. She received her education from Alabama A&M University, Meharry Medical College and Tennessee State University. After graduating from dental school in 1979, Bah went to Boston University’s School of Graduate Dentistry.
Bah has saved many lives in her line of work. “Oral infections can increase your chances of having a heart attack or stroke,” Bah said. “If you’re a diabetic, you’ll have a harder time controlling your blood sugar.” Bah has a private practice in Nashville.
She realized very early that educating herself was a surefire way to achieve power and respect. “It was instilled in Black children to get an education,” Bah said. “An education was something no one could ever take away from us.”
Bah also remembers that her high school physics teacher would constantly tell her and her classmates to register and exercise their right to vote when they turned 18. Another constant suggestion was to get an education. “That advice has helped so many of us to move forward,” Bah said. This medical pioneer has similar advice for struggling minorities. “I was told growing up that an education could better our lives. That has somehow been lost in translation.”
